This invention relates generally to a system and method of instruction for teaching with no instructor present, a user as young as two years old, to play a musical instrument with keys such as a piano or keyboard as well as reading and responding correctly to standard music notation for keyboarded instruments. It specifically relates to a system and method of instruction for teaching a beginning student, even a two year old pre-reading student, using audio, visual, and tactile sensory stimuli; beginning with the basics of depressing fingers one at a time, then continuing with instruction for depressing one key at a time using a specified finger, playing sequences on finger shapes or keys, teaching the user to play with both hands separately and together in parallel or contrary motion, and teaching the user to read and respond correctly to standard music notation. As the user progresses in proficiency with these sensory stimuli used singly or in tandem, sensory help is gradually withdrawn, enabling user to play any piano or keyboard instrument as well as read and correctly respond to standard music notation without these additional sensory helps.
In recent years there has been an increased awareness of the great benefits of very early applied music instruction, here “applied” meaning actually learning to play an instrument. Few teachers teach the very young, particularly children as young as two years old, how to play the piano. Very young children, that is, children who are in the process of learning language, have at this point in their development great but narrow learning abilities: highly discerning hearing and memory capability coupled with high motivation. Any truly effective teaching done with this age child must parallel language learning and properly make use of these abilities.
Young children this age tend to relate more heavily to one of the forms of learning-tactile, visual, and aural—thereby making it necessary to incorporate all three forms with every action of the teaching process that targets young children. In addition, every step in the learning process must be clearly related in the mind of the user to the previous step, for young children cannot compensate for skipped steps. This manner of teaching with a meticulous step-by-step approach can be overwhelming to an instructor accustomed to teaching an older, reading student. Heretofore, parents of the very young child have been faced with the challenge of finding and affording a competent teacher as well as providing extensive coaching for their child to receive the benefits of early piano. This electronic circuit driven apparatus is able to provide necessary teaching repetition, combination of sensory stimuli, meticulous attention to each step of the process and monitoring of progress; thereby enabling apparatus to proceed with step-by-step instruction that is individually appropriate for the user provided at a small fraction of the cost of that for teachers and coaches.
It has been stated in some prior art, that young children have a short attention span. Young children may be distracted easily; however, a young child immersed in an activity of great interest to that young child, will focus on that activity for long periods of time, on occasion for hours. This apparatus is purposely designed to have great visual appeal, as well as appropriate and sensory stimulating tactile, visual, and audio prompts incorporated in every action.
Prior art assumes prior training or development of fine motor skills and finger dexterity which are associated with older children. With this apparatus, it is not required that the young user have previously trained fine motor skills and finger dexterity to start learning how to play a keyboarded instrument. The beginning skill of this apparatus requires only that the user place his/her hands on top of the obvious illuminated finger and palm shapes representing two child size handprints and depressing or pushing down on the illuminated/vibrating shapes for one of these hands. The next skill level is ability to move each finger independently. With repetition and practice, increased proficiency will follow, which leads to another aspect of teaching very young children. Young children accept and enjoy repetitious learning activities, but pushing them beyond their present learning level limits, hinders or stops progress. This apparatus will allow children to repeat activities as many times as necessary. New activities are introduced carefully in conjunction with already mastered skills in order to keep the child's interest and motivation.
In an effort to stay within the realm of capability of the very young child this apparatus relies heavily on multiple sensory stimuli: verbal instruction coupled with audio sounds, coupled with color matching, coupled with tactile, vibrating stimulus. This apparatus uses these sensory stimuli to teach children which fingers to use, what keys to play and how to read music notation, enabling the very young child to learn to play a keyboarded instrument using all fingers of both hands and being able to read standard music notation.
Many devices indicated in prior art have sought to provide instruction for the beginner piano student. None of the prior art, however, is appropriate for the user as young as two years old. None of the prior art offers a comprehensive method of teaching piano and using standard notation with the use of multisensory stimuli. Most address only one part of the complex process needed to teach the user to play the piano/keyboard. Most address a user with prior experience and/or instruction and much older than two years old. One, U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,051 to Segan, provides a device for teaching young beginner students the correlation between the user's finger and standard piano fingering numbers. It, however, uses the right-hand only and lights which are all the same color to indicate a finger or a key. These lights, however, do not color-code the proper finger to the proper key or keys. It is assumed that a child using this particular device already knows numbers 1 through 5 and the user of this device must be able to respond to audio, verbal finger number prompts in order to use the proper finger on the proper key. This device does show music notation on the cards inserted onto apparatus but does not teach the user how to read said notation.
Many devices indicate proper keys to play or which hand to use by utilizing lights. U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,055 by Breitweiser, Jr., use red and green lights to indicate right and left hands. This device also displays on the surface of the keys a finger or other symbolic form of identifying a finger. The user of this device would need prior knowledge of right and left hands and be able to discern from a symbol which finger is to be used. My apparatus does not require that the user know right hand from left-hand or be able to tell from a symbol which finger is indicated. My apparatus begins at the much more elementary level of learning and incorporates the combination of multi sensory stimuli (audio, visual, vibrating tactile).
There are many keyboards in the marketplace that utilize illuminated keys. However, all these devices illuminate the keys only to indicate the proper key to be used by the user. None of these devices have an obvious way to indicate which finger should be used for a given key. My apparatus uses illuminated and vibrating keys to give the user multi sensory stimuli.
Many keyboards are enabled to show the user how to play a tune by the sequential illumination of keys such as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,534 by Yasutoshi, et al., or a display indicating keys to be depressed. None of these keyboards activate any type of tactile stimulus as an added indicator to the user which key to activate such as is in my apparatus. None have the obvious visual or tactile correlation between key and appropriate finger to be used by user as in my apparatus.
Many devices use wearable devices such as a glove to guide the user to depress keys with certain fingers. No such wearable device is appropriate for the young learner.
Color coding is used to help in the reading of notation. U.S. Pat. No. 6,284,961 by Kimmel, codes keys to color coded musical notes. U.S. Pat. No. 7,148,414 by Kestenbaum et al., also has a system for color coding notation for ease in reading notes using seven colors for the seven tones of a musical scale. Corresponding colors are applied to keys by means of adhesive labels or color directly applied to the keys. The color-coded keys are directly coded to color-coded notes in these patents. The present invention color codes keys to fingering as well as color coding the notation to fingering. Five colors total are used to indicate the five fingers of each hand. In the beginning activities of the present invention it may appear that the color coding is a color coding of the keys. There are five keys illuminated in the same colors as the five finger shapes of the right-hand. There are however six keys illuminated in the same colors as the five finger shape of the left-hand. Two keys are illuminated in the same color as one of the finger shape of the left-hand. Later, when the color-coded keys of the present invention all become illuminated in the same color rather than the different colors, the multicolored finger shapes of the hands embodied in the apparatus continue to be used to prompt the user to use his/her finger that corresponds to an illuminated finger shape. This apparatus is multisensory, using verbal prompts and properly pitched sound coupled with both visual and additional tactile stimuli to demonstrate the proper finger for a particular key.
Rhythm is an integral part of learning to play the piano/keyboard. There are many games and programs that teach children rhythm. U.S. Pat. No. 7,174,510 by Salter, indicates rhythm to children by having them match rhythms incorporated into their audiovisual interactive games. The present invention continually exposes children to steady rhythm throughout every activity not only by examples they hear, but also by the meticulously steady pace of verbal prompts. In addition, however, the present invention provides audio, visual and tactile sensory stimuli to further indicate rhythm: indicating rhythm with properly pitched sound activated in rhythm, verbal instruction spoken in rhythm, with visual rhythmic on and off sequence of lights on the finger shape or keys, and with the “feel” of the rhythm utilizing on and off vibration stimulus. The users of the present invention simultaneously experience hearing, seeing and feeling proper rhythm.
All of the above referenced patents address some of the myriad aspects of teaching a person to play the piano/keyboard properly as well as reading notation. Most are intended to be used with more advanced students or students with teacher assistance. None are able to present their instruction in a manner in which a very young child (that is a child as young as two years old) would be able to learn to play a keyboard instrument independently with only the use of an apparatus, as well as learning to read and respond correctly to standard notation, again with the use only of an apparatus. None are comprehensive, that is, teaching the user from the basics of moving each finger independently to reading and responding correctly to notation. None of the above referenced patents use multiple sensory stimuli, including tactile stimulus, to aid in the instruction process. The present invention incorporates the three basic types of learning—aural, visual, and tactile—in every action of every activity until the user is able to respond first without one, and finally without all of them, thereby being able to play on any piano or keyboard instrument without a helpful sensory aid and to read and respond correctly to standard music notation.